A vegetarian retirement home

This blog was updated 16 May 2024

By Paul Appleby

According to a 2016 survey commissioned by The Vegan Society, 3.25% of Britain’s population, of whom around one-third are aged 50 years and over, are vegetarian or vegan. The same survey found that 542,000 Britons follow a vegan diet, and that 14% of these are aged 65 and over, equivalent to about 75,000 vegans of retirement age, with perhaps twice as many elderly vegetarians in the same age group.

So, there are plenty of us about, but is there the demand for an exclusively vegetarian/vegan retirement home? The Vegetarian Housing Association (VHA), established in the 1960s, provided sheltered accommodation for elderly veggies at premises in Sussex and North Wales. However, a lack of demand meant that the accommodation became decreasingly viable, the last of the homes closed in 2007, and VHA morphed into Vegetarian for Life (VfL), the advocacy charity for older vegetarians and vegans.

VfL has pursued a different strategy, aiming to raise the standards of catering for the estimated 6,500 vegetarians and vegans living in care homes, and encouraging independent living through grants and the provision of suitable ready meals by third parties (listed in the Dinners to your Door booklet). This is admirable, of course, but VfL have no plans (or the resources) to open a care home of their own, much less a vegetarian retirement home. (There are in fact two vegetarian care homes in Harrow, Middlesex, both aimed at the Hindu community, and tentative plans for another in East Sussex.)

So, where does that leave us? I’d like to see something akin to a vegetarian retirement village or community with additional care home facilities available, similar to those provided by Richmond Villages. This would almost certainly need the financial backing of a wealthy vegetarian or vegan entrepreneur, so it’s probably just a pipe dream of mine. In any case, would older vegetarians and vegans be prepared to leave friends and family behind and relocate to another part of the country? Maybe not, but if it worked (for a while at least) in the late twentieth century, when there were many fewer vegetarians and vegans than there are now, we should at least explore the possibility. What do other VfL supporters think?

Comment from Dr Barbara Sharp, Chair of Vegetarian for Life:

The question of an exclusively vegetarian or vegan care home (or other form of retirement accommodation) is frequently raised with us. Whilst the previous supported accommodation provided by The Vegetarian Housing Association failed to be sustainable due to a lack of demand, it is reasonable to re-visit the idea in light of the increasing numbers of older vegetarians and vegans.

There is a major barrier as highlighted in the question itself in terms of the significant and on-going level of resources it would take to realise such a facility, especially as VfL would insist on the highest standards of care and support. To be sustainable, such a facility would need to be a well-run business and even with an appropriately charitable model, the care home sector is a challenging space to enter. Care homes are regularly closing due to the demands of their running costs, and especially recruiting and retaining appropriately skilled staff.

However, I think the question deserves to be addressed with an understanding of the complexities involved beyond the purely financial. We have long argued that the importance of being vegetarian or vegan connects to an older person’s health, well-being, identity, spirituality, and philosophical beliefs and therefore should always be a key consideration in the delivery of holistic care. VfL’s current approach aims to ensure this right is realised for all older people experiencing care and I would argue that the focus demanded by an exclusive facility would dilute this important aim. There is also the ethical question of fairness in terms of who could access such limited facilities. Whether that accessibility is related to geography or affordability, surely better our charity continue to give our attention to making things better for all.

Choosing a care facility based on the albeit important aspect of being vegetarian or vegan could mean compromise or neglect in other fundamental considerations relating to personal identity, well-being, and a sense of ‘home’. These can include contact with friends, family, and sustaining one’s familiar community connections. Support needs lie across a broad range from ‘light touch’ to highly complex interventions and health conditions can be chronic or progressive and ever changing. Older people increasingly experience multiple pathology and need access to a wide range of expertise in areas such as dementia, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, strokes, and cardiorespiratory diseases to name a few. Sometimes the choice of care home has to be made on the strength of specific expertise available in order that responses to special physical, mental, and psychological needs are adequate.

All these variable factors make it very difficult to have any certainty as to how viable a designated resource would be because the needs of potential residents are so wide-ranging.